Forces of the Ghar: an Army List Review

The third chapter of the force reviews I've been doing, tha Ghar are probably the most off-centre force in the game, featuring small numbers of highly durable and dangerous mech-suits mixed in with large numbers of crappy quality cheap units to bulk out dice. Given their high-cost on the suits, they have little flexibility in army building, especially in games below 1000 points. At RES12 on the suits however, they are exceedingly tough for most forces to oppose with light weapons and require dedicated AT guns to really threaten them. I'd recommend having a look at the "heavily armoured" rule in the main book and becoming familiar with it as it forms the backbone of your durability.
The Ghar's reliance on disruptor weaponry gives them flexibility of fire modes depending on what targets you're facing but also generates a trigger dice that forces a unit down for the turn which can also affect your own troops (and can't be given to flitters or tectorists as shards can't go down). Ghar technology is also scramble proof, giving them immunity to weaponry and environmental conditions based on that effect, but generally caps out at SV4 on most platforms so you'll often need to assault heavy tanks to reliably take them out.
Suits are "large" for the purposes of cover and terrain and have a universally awful AGI of 3, making terrain one of your biggest considerations in the deployment phase as it will severely restrict where you can get to. They are powered by plasma reactors which are highly volatile. Failed RES saves on a 10 can start a chain reaction that can cost you dearly! Most suits and crawlers can take plasma amps and plasma dumps. Amps give a temporary boost to make units MOD2 or increase MOD2 to MOD3 which helps somewhat with the lack of dice in the bag but do take some book keeping and can burn out quickly, so make sure you activate them only when needed and don't leave yourself short later in the game. Plasma dumps are slightly less useful but allow for the benefit of extra durability when "down" (perhaps in the case of the dreaded distort dice being applied to them!). Although individually they don't appear to cost much, by the time they've been multiplied across your unit and then across your force, they soon add up so I find myself ditching the plasma dumps on most suit squads in favour of the amps.
Because of the inate durability of the suits and their low numbers, it is often worth a gamble by assigning wounds to your squad leader first and then utilising his re-roll(s) for a better change of mitigating the hit. This does obviously play a bit of risk but can soak extra damage from light arms fairly reliably.

Tactical
The meat of the army's points are going to be taken up in this slot, in large part because you have to take at least one battle squad and your support options are extremely limited unless you take a high commander, the cheapest high commander residing in this section encourages you down this path too, especially in smaller games.

Tactical Command squad
This unit follows the basic template common to all suit squads; ACC5, RES12, STR10 and comes in at 216 points for 3 models including the commander. For 20 points he can be upgraded to a high commander, getting extra re-rolls on failed RES tests for the cost and unlocking a suite of support choices too. 2 extra suits can be added to the squad at a cost of 57 per suit too. As the unit stands, It is a bit of a no brainer for small games, bringing suit-level resilience with all the benefits of the command/follow rules to boot.
Main strengths:
-Durable
-Distort weaponry flexible
-Plasma amps
-Capable in CC
Noteable weaknesses:
-Pricey
-Only ACC5 

Ghar Battle Squad
The vanilla variant of the above, they start out at 3 suits strong with the usual leader upgrade and come as standard with the stats above and the standard scourer cannon of the Ghar. It is a fairly flexible weapon, able to fire in three modes. Most of the time you'll want to take the rapid fire shooting option against infantry and lighter targets as the 9 shots they generate as a basic squad is quite good, but the other fire modes cover off most other situations nicely, especially the anti-armour mode being able to punch through most gun drones and light vehilces relatively easily.
184 points buys you the basic squad of three. Upgrade options include the aforemention plasma amps and plasma dumps which are bought by the model (4 model unit =  40pts upgrade on amps) and increasing levels of the leader rule as well as the option to up your squad to 5 strong.
At least one squad is required to fill your army requirements, so although they are a tax of sorts, they're more than good enough all rounders and can tank a lot of fire easily (especially if your opponent is using a lot of mag guns or other low SV weapons). They do need to be careful of being swamped however, especially by High-SV guns and even more so where they're mounted on MOD2/3 platforms.
Main strengths:
-Durable
-Flexible basic weapon
-Plasma amps
-Capable in CC
Noteable weaknesses:
-Pricey 
-High threat unit
-Vulnerable to AT weaponry

Ghar Assault Sqaud
Riffing off the standard battle squad above, the base cost buys you three suits armed with gouger guns, plasma claws and disruptor dischargers. The name and the armament clearly suits these guys for close combat. The gouger doesn't do a huge amount of damage and is pretty inncaurate and short ranged, but you only need to score a hit to force the enemy unit down, giving great benefits to any assaulting unit (including your own if you still have a MOD dice from your amps left to use). The disruptor discharger is geared for point blank shooting prior to the assault resolution, a nice SV of 2 and the blast D4 rule means you can shred large units before tearing them up in CC. With strength 10, they struggle to fail to hit so they're very dependable, especially given how few enemies will be able to damage them in return.
The only problem I feel these guys have is that the basic Ghar suit squads are more flexible due to their Scourer cannon and lack of a hyper specialisation, yet still retain a solid CC capability when you need to clear an objective. Assault squads aren't bad per se, just that you need to have their role in mind from deployment right through the game, making sure they've got routes of advance to objectives that will need to be cleared later in the game.
Main strengths:
-Durable
-Plasma amps
-Very capable in CC
-Great objective clearer 
-Able to hit hard with at least SV1 in CC
Noteable weaknesses:
-Pricey 
-High threat unit
-Hyper specialised in CC
-Low ranged damage output
-Vulnerable to AT weaponry

Outcast Command squad
The first in a line of dirt cheap very-light infantry, the outcast command squad unlocks multiple outcast weapon teams and infantry squads.
Stat wise these guys are horrible, but they come armed with maglashes so can conceivably annoy/harass light infantry in CC and might even beat them if the dice are on your side!
As with all really rubbish options, these guys are cheap and when assault squads are so pricey, cheap disposable units come in very handy. As suits are "Large" they can also shoot over these plebs unhindered.
Main strengths:
-Cheap activation dice
-Unlock useful weapon teams (also cheap)
-Good option for the distort dice
Noteable weaknesses:
-Awful statlines
-No ranged weaponry

Outcast squad
The vanilla outcast infantry, the un-suited ghar are squishy and weak and fall in on the above line of being the small harrassing light infantry that costs little but achieves little. To be fair to these guys, a large squad with lugger guns can put out some fire and can pin other light infantry as well as plink a casualty or two here and there as well. They do suffer from a finite ammo supply however, so if your dice aren't hot and you havent taken support troops, its easy to run out of ammo and leave yourself as a CC-only unit! They can also be upgraded to take one of the weapon teams with a disruptor cannon making a mixed weapon team/infantry unit. This is a useful pick as it effectively gives the good weapon a ton of ablative wounds. You can also give both of the outcast squads and command squads grenades for a laugh, though its largely a waste of points as they're still rubbish despite the extra investment.
Main strengths:
-Cheap order dice
-Can take disruptor cannon upgrade
-Cheap source of pins
-Good option for the distort dice
Noteable weaknesses:
-Awful statlines
-Limited ammunition  

Outcast weapon team (Disruptor cannon)
A very cheap tactical slot choice with a decent gun for the price, it offers very little else but can very easily fill out the required tactical slots if you want to use your points for heavier options. It benefits from the weapon team rules in that the gun is quite durable but the crew are extremely squishy and will evaporate quickly. This doesn't really matter though as you're looking at a tiny investment. with an outcast command squad, you can fit in 3 of these teams and still sit around 100 points! If you view tactical slots as "tax", these guys are the cheapest way of meeting your obligations. They also offer a light-infantry heavy force some cheap firepower.
Main strengths:
-Extremely cheap tactical slot
-Decent gun for the price
Noteable weaknesses:
-Exceedingly squishy
-Have to have an outcast command squad to take multiples

Hukk bounty hunter
A mercenary for hire, the Hukk are willing to work for the Ghar but are a 0-1 choice and take up a tactical slot. What they offer is a relatively cheap unit (by Ghar terms) that has some ranged utility and some Melee utility which also brings with it some OH fire capability should you need it.
As base, its customised mag gun stands a very good chance of hitting and any "normal" hits count as a lucky shot, perfect for clearing out annoying things like batter drones/nanodrones or heavy weapon troopers like C3 lancers that otherwise threaten you. The main problem is that the gun is extremely accurate, but has little punch thanks to its mag-gun penetration so although you're liekly to hit, most troopers stand a good chance of saving against it. The Hukk can also take an underslung custom x-launcher which can load up on slingnet and overload ammo which gives more punch at the cost of less accuracy. At 122 points starting cost, you get a cheapish unit that can move quickly and deal with terrain better than your suits as well as gain cover bonuses without hindering the suits from shooting over its head. The hunting angriz it comes with are serviceable in melee and are good ablative wounds, though the 'Wound' rule is as much of a drawback as it is a bonus here, making him far less hitty as the game goes on. He benefits massively from an extra angkriz or two and a drone swarm of 1-2 shield drones and a medi drone, but these significantly add to the price so should be only considered where you desperately need the Hukk to be your main tool for the mission.
Main strengths:
-Excellent at clearing out persky support drones (batter/nano)
-Good all rounder
-Much cheaper than a suit squad
-OH capable
Noteable weaknesses:
-Needs upgrades to really shine
-Gets pricey quickly
-Will take a lot of AI fire in a suit-heavy list
-Wound rule reduces effectiveness quickly.

Support
The support slots for the Ghar are fairly limited, there's no getting around it. What you do have access to are very solid however, and many forces will want to take at least something from this section though non-command options are locked behind the paywall of needing a high commander in the list to access them.

Ghar command crawler
Prior to the introduction of the Tactical command squad, this was one of the only ways to get a high commander and unlock further support choices. Then the rules on leader and vehicles were clarified and this vehicle is now much less survivable (and thankfully less rage-inducingly broken for your opponents!) It is now partially redundant compared to previously, but a high commander mounted in one of these with plasma amps running can stick a lot of fire downrange whilst creating a decent bubble of CO for nearby troops. As a vehicle, it is vulnerable to dedicated AT fire and close combat and hasn't got as much protection from its leader/high commander rules as it had pre-errata. It represents a large amount of points in one unit, and so benefits from a mix of lighter and cheaper units like the auxilliary slots and outcasts to get the order dice count up a bit
Main strengths:
-Almost invulnerable to light/medium weaponry
-Flexible pair of scourer cannons with high ROF
-Plasma amps for MOD3
-Large buff radius due to large footprint
Noteable weaknesses:
-Very pricey 
-High threat unit
-Vulnerable to specialist AT weaponry
-Vulnerable in CC

Ghar Bomber squad
One of the only OH fire options available to the ghar, it is comprised of a two-man suit squad at base, one armed with a Disruptor Bomber and the leader with a scourer cannon. there are options for including a further two scourer cannon armed suits and also a scutter armed with a scourer and a bomb feeder to counter the "limited ammo" trait on the bomber.
As with all suits, they are flexible and hit hard and are afforded amps/dumps as standard upgrades.
The disruptor bomber is a good gun but can't patch fire from elsewhere in the list and receive little benefit from auxiliary shards as other races can with their OH fire options. That said, disruptor ammo with the blast template can threaten squishy backfield units right from the off so a bit of luck with the dice can get you off to a great start, especially when plasma amps get you extra shots per-turn too.
In-line with this, the unit is quite cheap by battle suit standards though soon gets pricey with amps, scutters etc.
Main strengths:
-Durable
-Flexible basic weapon
-OH fire
-Plasma amps double the fire output each turn its active.
-Fairly capable in CC
Noteable weaknesses:
-Limited ammo trait needs scutters to work around
-Pricey 
-High threat unit
-Vulnerable to AT weaponry
-Large units lose fire output when using indirect fire on the bomber.

Attack scutters
A medium-cost option as a "mounted unit" statline, they gain a cost-efficient way of getting some more agile scourer cannons on the board at the cost of them being less durable and worse in CC vs battle suits. They are very very vulnerable in CC against anything with some SV on their strikes (or just massed attacks/good PBS options) but otherwise offer the same firepower at a slightly reduced cost and are less shafted by terrain given their AG 5. Given how tight points are in a suit-heavy force, I always struggle to justify these guys' existence. Just take suits imho.
Main strengths:
-Cheaper than full suits
-More agile than full suits
-Flexible basic weapon
-Plasma amps
Noteable weaknesses:
-Exceedingly vulnerable in CC
-Very vulnerable to AT weaponry
-Will go down to massed AI fire.

 Strategic
Usually reserved for the biggest of the big guns, the Ghar are overhwelmed with a massive two options!!! one of which is a transport! lol. In all actuality, Ghar don't have huge volumes of points to burn after taking the requisite tactical units and suits, so there's not often tons of choice for nice toys like in other factions and the inherent durability and felxibility of the suits largely negates a lot of the need that other factions have. What we do have is solid and useful however, which is always a good thing.
Bombardment crawler
A variant of the command crawler, this one eschews the command crew and replaces it with a heavy disruptor bomber, in practice an upgraded heavier variant of the bomber's suit mounted gun. On this chassis it starts out at MOD2 and with amps can go up to MOD3 for as long as the amps hold out. It counts as a RES13 vehicle which is very solid, but it can be one-shotted and lacks the protection of the leader rule, meaning whatever the dice rolls on the damage table is what you keep. As a rule, its long effective range and OH fire modes mean you should keep it back and screen it against enemy AT weapons and use the MOD3 from amps early to maximise its alpha-strike. It should be noted that it gains little from sharded units so dont expect to be reliably hitting targets, use the template and aim for densely packed mobs to maximise chances of scattering. The scourer cannons can also add weight of fire to the main target or fire at something else if you're on a fire order (making it capable of shelling out multiple pins/turn).
It also needs a scutter or two with bomb feeders to keep the ammo feed flowing, you've paid the points for the big gun, don't waste them by running dry on ammo early!
Main strengths:
-Pretty much safe against small and medium arms
-Flexible paired scourer armament with high ROF
-Plasma amps for MOD3
-Hard hitting OH fire on MOD2/3 platform
Noteable weaknesses:
-Very Pricey 
-High threat unit
-Vulnerable to AT weaponry
-Can be one-shotted
-"Limited ammo" trait needs a scutter to overcome
-Vulnerable in CC against grenade armed units

Transporter/Dropper
This is the ghar armed transport option and can carry 10 non-suited troopers or up to 5 suits (think 3 man assault squad plus 2 man bomber squad). There is no current model for it yet (as of may 2018) but it is sure to be an impressive piece of kit if the recent tank releases are anything to go by!!
As standard it comes armed with a single scourer cannon and has a 15point upgrade to twin it to up ROF. On a RES13 vehicle that starts at MOD2 (with amps to get to MOD3 for a while) it is capable of laying down a hail of fire whilst getting some squads around in relative safety.
If you want to go more gun-ship with it, you can instead add a disruptor bomber turret at the cost of 2 transport slots (dropping it down to being a 3-suit or 8man capable transport) but improving its damage output greatly. It has options for Amps/Dumps and a bomb-feeder scutter to provide ammo for the turret (and a bit of extra scourer fire!) but comes in really expensive once all the upgrades are added and doesn't really sync well with something that wants to be rapidly moving troops around rather than OH firing on fire orders at long range. The sensible move I feel is keep to the basic model for transport duties (maybe with the twin scourer and plasma amps if points allow), use its MOD2/3 for running into position in turn one and then advance in turn 2 to allow troops to disembark when needed. If going gunship, you're basically buying a slightly worse bombardment crawler that has some transport capability so think about whether you actually want to have the transport capacity or whether you want to just sit back and shell the enemy as the two roles don't overlap well at all.
Of course, it is a vehicle and they are vulnerable up close to grenade armed units and can be easily lost if overextended. Make sure to drop suits where close-support is needed and don't be afraid to back off with advance orders and shred threatening units with wanton murder. The biggest problem I see with a transport for ghar is that suits are already expensive and quite mobile with plasma amps running and they're not a force that has lots of spare points for niceties. For a more outcast focussed force, you'd be able to justify taking one but i think you'll struggle to make them fit in a suit-heavy force.
Main strengths:
-Pretty much safe against small and medium arms
-Flexible single/paired scourer armament with medium/high ROF
-Plasma amps for MOD3
-Upgradeable to OH fire on MOD2/3 platform
-Can quickly reposition a unit
Noteable weaknesses:
-Get pricey quickly in an already expensive army
-High threat unit
-Vulnerable to AT weaponry
-Can be one-shotted
-"Limited ammo" trait on the turret needs a scutter to overcome
-Vulnerable in CC against grenade armed units

Auxiliary
For once, we've actually got a decent number of options in this section! Most are cheap utility order dice but provide a lot of utility for the otherwise expensive Ghar.

Tectorist Scouts
An odd unit, they've been subject to a bit of a rewrite in the rules errata (v2.0 as of writing). Discard the main rulebook entry for them as the errata overwrites this.
Functionally, they're now probes with a lower run rate that can't shimmy through impenetrable terrain. They also have the leader rule to re-roll a failed RES test, but it won't often help much given their low RES stat unless you can keep them in some solid cover. They grant a single re-roll of a missed shot against a unit within 15" of a member of the shard, which is quite a long way to be fair. For the big guns like Bombers/Bombardment crawlers, the re-roll can be exceptionally useful, especially on a turn where plasma amps are running!
They're mega cheap at 20pts and can be added to for a 5point/model asking price.
Auto-take!

Flitters
A 'true' sharded probe unit, these are effectively another 20point order dice but suffer the usual Ghar drawbacks of being slower than other races and suffering additional rules. They provide +1 ACC when shooting direct fire weaponry at a target within 5" but only 50% of the time! You need to roll for the bonus on a d10 when the effect would come into play to see whether you gain the extra ACC.
These are useful for the cheap extra order dice if nothing else but the low ACC of ghar units and dependence on RF weaponry means if your dice are like mine, you'll appreciate the extra help!

Wrecker
Effectively another variant of the scutter, it ditches its offensive armament to provide RES re-rolls to nearby vehicles. At 30pts its a cheap dice that can help keep your big hitters in the game but brings little else to the force as a whole. It is AGI 7 and INI 7 though, so is useful for shimmying through terrain and surviving enemy fire with reactions.

Munition scutter
An individual scutter similar to the ones available as upgrades to the bombardment crawler and bomber suits, it carries bomb ammo for nearby units and for 5pts can carry lugger ammo to keep outcast units firing their lugger guns. If running large amounts of outcasts this is a cracking reason to run one, especially as it comes in at a paltry 31pts and also comes armed with a scourer cannon for supporting fire! If you end up with a stray 10points you could give it plasma amps but it otherwise suffers all the negatives as per the attack cutter squad in the support section.

 

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